Hollywood Noir: Death at the Frolic Room

Posted on Jun 10, 2010

Flickr/juliejordanscott

Life imitated noir recently at one of Hollywood’s iconic old haunts, the Frolic Room, when doorman Jerry Andersen was found struck down in the bar’s vestibule on the night of April 5 after attempting to escort a churlish patron outside. Now Andersen is dead, and the case remains a mystery—for the time being at least, as Legman LA is on the story. —KA

Legman LA:

Gerald Thomas Andersen, one of five brothers who grew up in a small Midwestern agricultural town arrived in Los Angeles some 20 years back, like so many others gifted with good looks and a modicum of talent, to find his way in showbiz. In April, at the age of 49, never having landed that big role, Mr. Andersen returned to his hometown of Faribault, Minnesota for his funeral. And if that sounds hard-boiled, consider the location of his demise, a 1930’s era Hollywood gin mill where he worked the door and which remains an iconic backdrop for LA film noir.

There have been six homicides in Hollywood to date, but this is not one of them. It doesn’t rate a colored dot on the Los Angeles Police Department’s comprehensive crime map; it is simply a death investigation according to detectives, as police regard the possibility the doorman had passed out and impacted his head. But Carole Andersen, Mr. Andersen’s mother, is convinced her son Jerry- as he was known- was killed in a boozy drug fueled rage by a bar patron, likely struck with a beer bottle to the back of his head.